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« Roush Dispatch
On CSI, Lab (and Other) Rats Rule
It's easy to take shows like the original CSI for granted. (I often hear from viewers wondering why no one makes a bigger fuss over the better procedurals of the day, from Cold Case and Without a Trace to the various incarnations of Law & Order. The simple answer: Glut exhaustion.) Which is why I found Thursday night’s “Lab Rats” episode of CSI so captivating. Switching up the formula a bit, adding welcome doses of humor and even a bit of slapstick, while never losing sight of the joy of the puzzle, CSI delivered one of the most purely enjoyable episodes of anything this season.
The idea was to give the lab-bound geeks a moment in the spotlight, taking advantage of Grissom’s absence in the morgue to do their own digging into the crime-scene miniatures that have haunted the show most of the season. (The episode was also a nifty primer of this mystifying case for those who might have missed an episode along the way. Which in this age of Grey’s Anatomy competition is entirely possible.) The banter among the lab rats was funny-snarky, much of it aimed at Wallace Langham as fussy and perpetually self-impressed trace technician David Hodges. As the episode progressed, each of his colleagues bailed for reasons both personal and professional, leaving him alone (shades of High Noon) to poke and prod to find a connection among these dollhouses of death.
Which he eventually did. Bleach? Whatever. Turns out this really was his lucky day, and not just because his EBay bid for Three’s Company memorabilia was accepted. (One of the episode’s bigger laughs.) He may drive Grissom around the bend most weeks, but the boss meant it when he said, “Good job, Hodges.”
I’d like to say good job as well to Sarah Goldfinger, who wrote the playful script, sharing story credit with executive producer Naren Shankar. I love it when a show like this breaks form, in this case sending the usual regulars off to the messy daily grind and letting us see what the rats are up to while the cool cats are away. In this case, there was an extra rat in the mix: a disgusting creature that burst out of a decomposed body in horrifying Alien style and skittered around the morgue—who knew Dr. Robbins, aka Robert David Hall, who works around icky cadavers all day, could get so skeeved out by a rodent?
This episode is a high point in what, thanks in large part to the “miniature” killer storyline, has been one of my favorite CSI seasons. I’m anxious to see how it all plays out.
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Apr 13, 2007 2:05 PM
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Matt - have to disagree with you on this one. I do like the premise and did enjoy the funnier moments of this episode but in truth this episode was more of a best-moments, or recap show than it was a new episode. For all of us that follow the show on a regular basis - we saw very little that was new. Out of the 42 minutes of programming I would estimate that less than half of the show was original.
I will give the writers credit for their originality but I myself found it to be a bit drawn out!
If the writers were to have called this episode a recap episode I would have said it was the best recap I had ever seen a show do - but to call it a new episode was a very large stretch to me!
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Apr 13, 2007 4:34 PM
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Hi Matt,
Thanks for the shout-out to CSI. I really enjoyed this episode too; and, Ranger, whether or not this was a sneaky recap episode, I needed one on each of the miniature murders. I've read that this is going to be wrapped up at the end of the season.
Wallace Langham is so good as David Hodges. Last night's episode gave him a chance to really shine, along with the rest of the lab rats.
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Apr 13, 2007 4:52 PM
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I really liked this episode, too, Matt. I am not a big Hodges fan, but he was great in this episode. The Three's Company board game was hilarious!
I enjoyed seeing how the lab techs work together, and they kind of reminded me of some of my friends and family, poking fun at each other while also respecting what the other does. And Mandy is awesome. The Miss Moneypenny impersonation was spot on.
I know a lot of people complained about all the flashbacks in the episode, but I can't say I minded, only because the Detroit Red Wings were playing their first Stanley Cup championship game and I got to flip channels without missing much. 
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Apr 14, 2007 7:31 AM
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I agree. This was an enjoyable episode. It was funny and a nice break from all the doom. Good writing!
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Apr 14, 2007 12:29 PM
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it got good once they got past reviewing all of the old footage.
but, like you said, it's great for someone who missed any of those four episodes, and seemed like a great recap for what i'm assuming will be the conclusion of this arc towards the end of the season.
i was wondering if anyone else thought that this arc would conclude in the season finale, and the killer sends a box to grissom with grissom's death. that would be pretty intense, in my opinion. what are your thoughts??
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Apr 15, 2007 12:30 AM
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oh-- and maybe i'm watching a little too much lost-- drawing paralels between the flashbacks and the island story-- but did you think that the actual 'lab' rat getting electricuted when it escaped sort of forshadowed the 'lab rat' (hodges) death because he was delving into the mystery? playing where he shouldn't be playing??
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Apr 15, 2007 12:32 AM
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Ranger, a bit picky aren't we? Why should the producers call this a clip show? A few flashbacks don't make this a clip show. If you felt cheated, to bad. Your estimate about how much was clip is incorrect. I have the tape I made. The few minutes of flashbacks hardly accounts for nearly half of what remained after the bills were paid (commercials). People complain when there's lots of gore and they complain when there's hardly any. Cripes, sometimes I think you complainers would gripe if you were being whipped with a velvet rope.
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Apr 15, 2007 1:42 PM
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I agree with Matt and all of the posters that put a positive spin on this episode, and I'm glad the naysayers are in the minority. I thought it was a blast. Had lots of humor. Gave a different slant to the show. Filled in the pieces about the minatures so that I felt caught up and READY for when they tie this up AND threw in a couple of things like the bleach, Iowa being a commonality, and a couple of other things I can't pinpoint right now. I still want to know HOW the rat got into that dead guy. Freaked me out!!
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Apr 15, 2007 2:25 PM
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I for one am grateful that they did a recap on the miniature killer episodes. I'm a newcomer to the CSIs. I started watching because of months at a time with no new LO:CI and LO:SVU episodes and now I'm totally hooked. I missed the whole first half of this season and had only seen the last miniature killer episode. My husband and I also watch the reruns of the earlier seasons and it was great to see the behind the scenes lab techs get their day in the spotlight. I was excited for this episode when I read the previews here on this site and I was not disappointed.
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Apr 15, 2007 4:07 PM
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, Matt!!! I just can't get over how great this week's episode was (yes, Wallace Langham is incredible as Hodges, but you have to credit the writers too 'cos the character himself is awesome). I was just talking to a friend about how Vegas is so much better than both Miami and NY (though I *do* also love the other 2) because it's able to pull off those outside-the-formula episodes wonderfully (I for one loved Toe tags with the corpses telling their story, for example, though I'm aware that's not a very popular opinion). I mean, can you really imagine seeing an episode like this one on either of the other 2 shows? They're both too "serious", and it's like Vegas takes itself a lot less seriously, which is awesome. Miami had oh-so-many completely ridiculous episodes for so much less, for example.
Anyway, I COMPLETELY agree with you that this current season has been one of the best. I just can't understand why so many people have been saying it's weak...I'll admit the first couple of episodes weren't their best ones, but it went back to its greatness very early on, and giving Eric Szmanda a lot of screentime only helps (yeah, I *adore* Greg, specially his exchanges with Hodges and specially Grissom) - my only complaint is the absolute lack of screentime to Gary Dourdan, what's that about?
Seriously, I'm not even complaining about this ridiculous Grissom-Sara relationship, even though I see him as a father figure to her so in a way it's like incest. Ew. Anyway, it doesn't really bother me 'cos it's being done very subtly and it's not really an issue in the show, as in it never takes a center place on the show. Of course it will in the ep before the finale in which Melinda Clarke's Lady Heather comes back (YAY!!!!! Anyone else excited???) and, unfortunately, I predict that stupid, stupid Grissom will stick with Sara, but oh well. Nothing in life is perfect, right?
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Apr 15, 2007 7:47 PM
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I also liked getting to see the lab techs get some spotlight time. Hodges drives me nuts, but I actually cheered for him a little in this episode.
Off-topic...GwenRobby...only because the Detroit Red Wings were playing their first Stanley Cup championship game Yay! Weren't they awesome?!?!?!?! A good game on Sunday too!
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Apr 16, 2007 7:53 AM
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I loved the "recap" of the miniature episodes. I knew they were going to revisit them in upcoming episodes, and I, for one, appreciate the summary. Some were so long ago I had forgotten the details.
Great episode!
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Apr 16, 2007 9:45 AM
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This was a fun episode giving us a chance to see what some of those other faces are actually like. They whisk in and out so often, it was nice to see them as people with personalities.
And the whole 'Doc Robbins Versus the Rat' thing was hilarious. I love it when Grissom ends up in the morgue; he and the Doc play off each other so well, something odd is bound to happen.
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Apr 16, 2007 11:32 AM
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